The Howard R. Beattie Award for Contribution to Counsellor Professional Development - presented to a counsellor who has created new and beneficial ideas and techniques for professional use and communicated these through such means as workshops, local leadership and the organization of a conference or guidance professional development activities.

Dianne has been involved in the organization and delivery of a myriad of professional learning for Guidance Counsellors and teachers within her school board and community. She has been the curriculum writer for the OISE Additional Qualifications courses for Guidance and continues to focus on the mental health and well-being of teachers through mindfulness retreats and workshops.

"Inspiring, engaging, empowering"...Join us for Cannexus22 – now fully virtual!

Why attend Cannexus:

- Be part of Canada’s largest conference focused on career and workforce development
- Choose from 150 sessions on the latest research, policy and practice
- Stretch your budget – Great rates are still available!

Concours d'art oratoire - Canadian Parents for French (Ontario)

This year''s Concours d'art oratoire is going to be virtual. This spring, grade 11 and 12 students in French Second Language (FSL) programs (Core, Extended, or French Immersion) can participate in our annual public speaking contest. Students will submit their recorded speech according to the Concours d''art oratoire rules from February 14 th to April 8t th, 2022.

The winners will move on to compete at the Nationals in June 2022.

Please check out the scholarships that will be offered to the winners of the provincial competition HERE and for the CPF national competition HERE.

For FSL students who are thinking of studying in the sponsoring institutions, this is a wonderful opportunity to benefit from practicing and highlighting their public speaking skills! 

Information is HERE

Questions?  Contact Eillen Sellam esellam@on.cpf.ca

This has been a school year filled with both opportunities and challenges. Schools are welcoming students back to learning after the winter break, continuing to bolster and support student well-being, while facing the continued uncertainties. This document is designed to provide educators with some ideas to help ease this transition and to support the continued development of skills.

Make your incoming students feel at home through fun icebreakers and get-to-know-you activities!

When Alicia Dempster started her maternity leave in June 2019, she never dreamed that she would still be at home two and a half years later.

The Stouffville, Ont. woman fully intended to return to her job as an event planner for an area municipality after 15 months at home caring for her baby son and his toddler brother.

But COVID-19 derailed those plans. When her planned return-to-work date rolled around, the complete absence of public events meant the job she once had no longer existed. The alternative work her employer offered her -- cutting grass and picking weeds with the parks department -- seemed a poor match for her skills, so she opted to stay home "just a little longer."

For many years now the notion that individuals can benefit from receiving information in a preferred format (VARK) has attracted the chagrin of revered neuroscientists, academics and educators – in fact a letter (endorsed by 30 distinguished signatories) published in the Guardian in March 2017 could not have been more blunt in its headline, "No evidence to back idea of learning styles".

So how big a problem is there still and why does it matter to careers work?